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I'm pretty sure we took that from the New Testament though.

I'm an atheist but I know this prayer by heart. I must have heard it hundreds of times. Its sound is deeply ingrained in me, even if its meaning is vague when it comes to that one word (and others... "εισενέγκεις"? wut)

Besides, when I was a kid I thought the prayer is talking about a guy called Amin who's cunning ("ο πονηρός Αμήν"). I just learned the words by heart, I didn't now what they meant.



I'm pretty sure we took that from the New Testament though. Other way round I would expect.


He probably means that the word itself would not be used in that phrase, had it not be used in the testament first. It is used in that everyday phrase merely copying (and referring to) the New Testament, without the speakers necessarily having full awareness of its true meaning.


Apologies for sidetracking from the main subject of the thread but are you referring to me as "he"? If so, can I ask why?


I am not a native English speaker. I am a Greek speaker, and there is no equivalent to the gender-neutral "they", you have to choose "he" or "she" and "he" is the most usual choice. So, here I let my native-tongued thinking interfere with the ideal English interpretation of what I had to say. And, I did not read your username :)


Conjecture: a downvote can also mean "does not add to the discussion", where 'the discussion' is the original topic.

Counterpoint: I see many threads that get off-topic from the original post, and yet downvotes for them seem…random. Some off-topic sub-threads become lengthy and lively.

Colour me "confused".


Thanks for clarifying. I'm a native Greek speaker too.


I'm sorry, is this serious? I get downvoted because I ask why I was called "he" by default, as if we're all guys here, and I ask in the most polite way possible?

Oh well, I suppose I'll start calling everybody a "she" by default, then.


When in doubt, offend everyone by assuming "it".


Presumably they didn't read your user name...


Sorry, did I make a mistake? Isn't the Lord's Prayer in the New Testament?


No, you didn't make a mistake. The Lord's Prayer is Jesus' answer to the question "how do we pray?"

From my understanding and reading, the word's exact meaning seems somewhat ambiguous, but may be estimated from the context of the surrounding verses. So, I think the intent was partially conveyed, but without other primary sources it's difficult to have an absolute degree of precision.

This is why I think the argument you made is the most-likely-to-be-correct argument (contemporary use being influenced by the NT). It's also why I'm not sure there's any debate to be had here, nor why the question to you was raised. The Wikipedia article is quite clear that no other ancient texts from that time period contain the word.

So what do scholars do? The best they can!




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